Advertising with video ad creatives

ABSTRACT

The serving of advertisements with (e.g., on) video documents may be improved in a number of ways. For example, a system may (a) accept information defining at least one ad spot associated with at least one instance of an video document, (b) accept offers to have advertisements served in the ad spot(s), and (c) arbitrate among competing advertisements, using at least the offers, to determine at least one advertisement to be served in that ad spot(s). As another example, a system may (a) accept relevance information for an advertisement, (b) determine at least one video document using the accepted relevance information, (c) present information about the video document(s) to an advertiser associated with the advertisement, and (d) accept, from the advertiser, an offer to have its advertisement served with at least one of the video document(s) accepted. As yet another example, a system may (a) accept relevance information for an video document, (b) determine a plurality of advertisements relevant to the video document using the relevance information and serving constraints of the advertisements, and (c) select at least one of the determined relevant advertisements to be served with the video document. Examples of video documents include video files published on the Internet, television programs, live or recorded talk shows, video-voice mail, segments of an video conversation, etc.

§1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

§1.1 Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns advertising, such as online advertisingfor example. In particular, the present invention concerns improving theutility of advertisements to end users.

§1.2 Background Information

Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio,newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armedwith demographic studies and entirely reasonable assumptions about thetypical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize thatmuch of their ad budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is very difficultto identify and eliminate such waste.

Recently, advertising over more interactive media has become popular.For example, as the number of people using the Internet has exploded,advertisers have come to appreciate media and services offered over theInternet as a potentially powerful way to advertise.

Interactive advertising provides opportunities for advertisers to targettheir ads to a receptive audience. That is, targeted ads are more likelyto be useful to end users since the ads may be relevant to a needinferred from some user activity (e.g., relevant to a user's searchquery to a search engine, relevant to content in a document requested bythe user, etc.). Query keyword targeting has been used by search enginesto deliver relevant ads. For example, the AdWords advertising system byGoogle Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. (referred to as “Google”), deliversads targeted to keywords from search queries. Similarly, contenttargeted ad delivery systems have been proposed. For example, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/314,427 (incorporated herein, in itsentirety, by reference and referred to as “the '427 application”),titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”,filed on Dec. 6, 2002 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Hark andPaul Buchheit as inventors; and Ser. No. 10/375,900 (incorporatedherein, in its entirety, by reference and referred to as “the '900application”), titled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS BASED ON CONTENT,” filedon Feb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson, Paul Buchheit, AlexCarobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Hark, Deepak Jindal andNarayanan Shivakumar as inventors, describe methods and apparatus forserving ads relevant to the content of a document, such as a Web pagefor example. Content targeted ad delivery systems, such as the AdSenseadvertising system by Google for example, have been used to serve ads onWeb pages.

As can be appreciated from the foregoing, serving ads relevant toconcepts of text in a text document and serving ads relevant to keywordsin a search query are useful because such ads presumably concern acurrent user interest. Consequently, such online advertising has becomeincreasingly popular. Moreover, advertising using other targetingtechniques, and even untargeted online advertising, has becomeincreasingly popular.

Currently, ads delivered with video content, such as televisionbroadcasts for example, are typically based on a “reservation” model.That is, an advertiser reserves a spot in the televised broadcast for afixed fee. Unfortunately, however, the reservation model doesn'tnecessarily maximize revenue for the video content publisher becausemany advertisers that don't have the resources to negotiate agreementsfor such ad spots don't compete for those ad spots. Further, from theperspective of the end-user (i.e., the person or persons to whom theaudio content is delivered), the ad could be totally irrelevant or notas useful as it could be.

Existing advertising systems, such as systems that insert ads into videocontent (a “video document”), could be improved. For example, it wouldbe useful to improve the relevancy of ads served in (or with) a videodocument. It would also be useful to improve the value, in terms ofpotential advertising revenue, of such a video document. It would beespecially useful to improve the value, in terms of potentialadvertising revenue, of an aggregate of multiple instances of a videodocument.

§2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments consistent with the present invention may be used to improvethe serving of advertisements with (e.g., on) video documents. Forexample, at least some embodiments consistent with the present inventionmay (a) accept information defining at least one ad spot associated withat least one instance of an video document, (b) accept offers to haveadvertisements served in the ad spot(s), and (c) arbitrate amongcompeting advertisements, using at least the offers, to determine atleast one advertisement to be served in that ad spot(s). As anotherexample, at least some embodiments consistent with the present inventionmay (a) accept relevance information for an advertisement, (b) determineat least one video document using the accepted relevance information,(c) present information about the video document(s) to an advertiserassociated with the advertisement, and (d) accept, from the advertiser,an offer to have its advertisement served with at least one of the videodocument(s) accepted. As yet another example, at least some embodimentsconsistent with the present invention may (a) accept relevanceinformation for an video document, (b) determine a plurality ofadvertisements relevant to the video document using the relevanceinformation and serving constraints of the advertisements, and (c)select at least one of the determined relevant advertisements to beserved with the video document. Examples of video documents includevideo files published on the Internet, television programs, live orrecorded talk shows, video-voice mail, segments of an videoconversation, etc.

§3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various ways video content can bedelivered and received.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing parties or entities that can interact withan advertising system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an environment in which, or with which,embodiments consistent with the present invention may operate.

FIG. 4 is a bubble diagram of exemplary operations that may be performedin a manner consistent with the present invention, as well asinformation that may be used and/or generated by such operations.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary data structure for storing videodocument relevancy information in a manner consistent with the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary data structure for storing ad spotinformation in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary data structure for storing adinformation in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for extracting and/ordetermining relevancy information for a video document in a mannerconsistent with the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for determining ad spotsin a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for determining adsrelevant to ad spots in a video document in a manner consistent with thepresent invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for arbitratingrelevant ads competing for video document ad spots in a mannerconsistent with the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of apparatus that may be used to perform atleast some operations, and store at least some information, in a mannerconsistent with the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary environment 1300 consistent with thepresent invention in which video ads are served with video documents.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1400 for providing avideo content owner/creator front end in a manner consistent with thepresent invention.

FIG. 15 is an exemplary set of information 1500 that may be stored,either together as a record, or in association with a video identifier,once a video content owner/creator enters necessary information via afront end method such as that 1400 described with respect to FIG. 14.

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1600 for providing avideo advertiser front end in a manner consistent with the presentinvention.

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1700 for serving videoads with video content in a manner consistent with the presentinvention.

FIG. 18 is a messaging diagram illustrating the serving of video adswith video content in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary hosted Web page, including a videoplayer that may be used to play videos and video ads in a mannerconsistent with the present invention.

§4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus, messageformats, and/or data structures for improving the serving of videoadvertisements with documents, such as documents including video contentfor example. The following description is presented to enable oneskilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in thecontext of particular applications and their requirements. Thus, thefollowing description of embodiments consistent with the presentinvention provides illustration and description, but is not intended tobe exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the precise formdisclosed. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will beapparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles setforth below may be applied to other embodiments and applications. Forexample, although a series of acts may be described with reference to aflow diagram, the order of acts may differ in other implementations whenthe performance of one act is not dependent on the completion of anotheract. Further, non-dependent acts may be performed in parallel. Also, asused herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items.Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language isused. In the following, “information” may refer to the actualinformation, or a pointer to, identifier of, or location of suchinformation. No element, act or instruction used in the descriptionshould be construed as critical or essential to the present inventionunless explicitly described as such. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown and the inventor regardshis invention to include any patentable subject matter described.

In the following definitions of terms that may be used in thespecification are provided in §4.1. Then, environments in which, or withwhich, the present invention may operate are described in §4.2.Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in §4.3.Thereafter, specific examples illustrating the utility of exemplaryembodiments of the present invention are provided in §4.4. Finally, someconclusions regarding the present invention are set forth in §4.5.

§4.1 DEFINITIONS

Online ads, such as those used in the exemplary systems described belowwith reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, or any other system, may have variousintrinsic features. Such features may be specified by an applicationand/or an advertiser. These features are referred to as “ad features”below. For example, in the case of a text ad, ad features may include atitle line, ad text, and an embedded link. In the case of an image ad,ad features may include images, executable code, and an embedded link.In the case of a video ad, ad features may include video content and,most likely, audio content. The ad features may also include executablecode (e.g., encoded as tones, pixels, etc., provided in non-videopackets of a video stream, etc.). Depending on the type of online ad, adfeatures may include one or more of the following: text, a link, anaudio file, a video file, an image file, executable code, embeddedinformation, etc. In devices that can render more than one type of media(devices that have different outputs), some ad features may pertain toone type of media rendered to the user over one output, while other adfeatures may pertain to another type of media rendered to the user overanother output. For example, if a mobile telephone includes a speaker, adisplay and telephony means, a video ad to be rendered on such atelephone can have one or more of an audio-video component andexecutable code for dialing an encoded telephone number. Naturally,other types of ad features are possible.

When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be used todescribe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These parameters arereferred to as “serving parameters” below. Serving parameters mayinclude, for example, one or more of the following: features of(including information on) a document on which, or with which, the adwas served, a search query or search results associated with the servingof the ad, a user characteristic (e.g., their geographic location, thelanguage used by the user, the type of browser used, previous pageviews, previous behavior, user account, any Web cookies used by thesystem, user device characteristics, etc.), a host or affiliate site(e.g., America Online, Google, Yahoo) that initiated the request, anabsolute position of the ad on the page on which it was served, an adspot in which the ad was served (e.g., a position (spatial or temporal)of the ad relative to other ads served), an absolute size of the ad, asize of the ad relative to other ads, an absolute and/or relativeresolution of the ad, an absolute and/or relative video frame rate ofthe ad, an absolute volume of the ad, a volume of the ad relative toother ads, an absolute temporal length of the ad, a relative temporallength of the ad, a color of the ad, a number of other ads served, typesof other ads served, time of day served, time of week served, time ofyear served, etc. Naturally, there are other serving parameters that maybe used in the context of the invention.

Although serving parameters may be extrinsic to ad features, they may beassociated with an ad as serving conditions or constraints. When used asserving conditions or constraints, such serving parameters are referredto simply as “serving constraints” (or “targeting criteria”). Forexample, in some systems, an advertiser may be able to target theserving of its ad by specifying that it is only to be served onweekdays, no lower than a certain position, only to users in a certainlocation, etc. As another example, in some systems, an advertiser mayspecify that its ad is to be served only if a page or search queryincludes certain keywords or phrases. As yet another example, in somesystems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is to be served only if adocument, on which, or with which, the ad is to be served, includescertain topics or concepts, or falls under a particular cluster orclusters, or some other classification or classifications (e.g.,verticals). In some systems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is tobe served only to (or is not to be served to) user devices havingcertain characteristics. Finally, in some systems, an ad might betargeted so that it is served in response to a request sourced from aparticular location, or in response to a request concerning a particularlocation.

“Ad information” may include any combination of ad features, ad servingconstraints, information derivable from ad features or ad servingconstraints (referred to as “ad derived information”), and/orinformation related to the ad (referred to as “ad related information”),as well as an extension of such information (e.g., information derivedfrom ad related information).

The ratio of the number of selections (e.g., clickthroughs,dial-throughs, etc.) of an ad to the number of impressions of the ad(i.e., the number of times an ad is rendered) is defined as the“selection rate” (or “clickthrough rate” or “CTR”) of the ad.

A “conversion” is said to occur when a user consummates a transactionrelated to a previously served ad. What constitutes a conversion mayvary from case to case and can be determined in a variety of ways. Forexample, it may be the case that/a conversion occurs when a user clickson an ad, is referred to the advertiser's Web page, and consummates apurchase there before leaving that Web page. Alternatively, a conversionmay be defined as a user being shown an ad, and making a purchase on theadvertiser's Web page within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). Inyet another alternative, a conversion may be defined by an advertiser tobe any measurable/observable user action such as, for example,downloading a white paper, navigating to at least a given depth of aWebsite, viewing at least a certain number of Web pages, spending atleast a predetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page,registering on a Website, dialing a telephone number, sending a productor service inquiry, etc. Often, if user actions don't indicate aconsummated purchase, they may indicate a sales lead, although useractions constituting a conversion are not limited to this. Indeed, manyother definitions of what constitutes a conversion are possible.

The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of impressions ofthe ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is rendered) and the ratio ofthe number of conversions to the number of selections (or the number ofsome other earlier event) are both referred to as the “conversion rate”or “CR.” The type of conversion rate will be apparent from the contextin which it is used. If a conversion is defined to be able to occurwithin a predetermined time since the serving of an ad, one possibledefinition of the conversion rate might only consider ads that have beenserved more than the predetermined time in the past.

A “property” is something on which ads can be presented. A property mayinclude online content (e.g., a Website, a video program, a Webcast, apodcast, online games, etc.), offline content (e.g., a newspaper, amagazine, a theatrical production, a concert, a sports event, atelevision broadcast, etc.), and/or offline objects (e.g., a billboard,a stadium score board, an outfield wall, the side of truck trailer,etc.). Properties with content (e.g., magazines, newspapers, Websites,email messages, television programs, etc.) may be referred to as “mediaproperties.” Although properties may themselves be offline, pertinentinformation about a property (e.g., attribute(s), topic(s), concept(s),category(ies), keyword(s), relevancy information, type(s) of adssupported, etc.) may be available online. For example, an outdoor jazzmusic festival may have entered the topics “music” and “jazz”, thelocation of the concerts, the time of the concerts, artists scheduled toappear at the festival, and types of available ad spots (e.g., spots ina printed program, spots on a stage, spots on seat backs, audioannouncements of sponsors, on site video displays, etc.). A “videoproperty” is a property that can be seen. A video property may includeother components (e.g., audio), but not necessarily.

A “document” is to be broadly interpreted to include anymachine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may be afile, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links toother files, etc. The files may be of any type, such as text, audio,image, video, etc. Parts of a document to be rendered to an end user canbe thought of as “content” of the document. A document may include“structured data” containing both content (words, pictures, sound,conversations, etc.) and some indication of the meaning of that content(for example, e-mail fields and associated data, HTML tags andassociated data, embedded program title and related information, etc.)Ad spots in the document may be defined by embedded information orinstructions. In the context of the Internet, a common document is a Webpage. Web pages often include content and may include embeddedinformation (such as meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embeddedinstructions (such as JavaScript, etc.). In many cases, a document hasan addressable storage location and can therefore be uniquely identifiedby this addressable location. A universal resource locator (URL) is anaddress used to access information on the Internet.

A “Web document” includes any document published on the Web. Examples ofWeb documents include, for example, a Website, a Web page, a Webcast,etc.

A “video document” is a document that can be seen when played ordecoded. A “video document” may include video content regardless ofwhether or not that content is ultimately stored on a tangible medium. Avideo document may include, for example, a live or recorded televisionprogram, a live or recorded theatrical or dramatic work, a music video,a televised event (e.g., a sports event, a political event, a newsevent, etc.), video-voice mail, etc. Each of different forms or formatsof the same video content (e.g., original, compressed, packetized,streamed, etc.) may be considered to be a video document (e.g., the samevideo document, or different video documents). Embodiments consistentwith the present invention may work with various video and “container”file formats such as, for example, one or more of Macromedia's FlashVideo (FLV), Microsoft's Advanced Streaming format (ASF), Windows MediaAudio (WMA), Windows Media file with AudioNideo (WMV), Audio VideoInterleave (AVI), DivX™, Intel Video Technology (IVF), Quick-Time MovieFile Extension (MOV), MPEG, Real Media, RealAudio, RealPlayer, RealVideo, Vivo Video (VIV), OGG, Matroska, 3gp, NUT, MXF, ratDVD, svi, etc.Embodiments consistent with the present invention may work with othervideo file formats.

“Document information” may include any information included in thedocument, information derivable from information included in thedocument (referred to as “document derived information”), and/orinformation related to the document (referred to as “document relatedinformation”), as well as an extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of documentderived information is a classification based on textual transcript, oraudio/video content of a document. Examples of document relatedinformation include document information from other documents with linksto the instant document, as well as document information from otherdocuments to which the instant document links.

Content from a document may be rendered on a “content renderingapplication or device”. Examples of content rendering applicationsinclude an Internet browser (e.g., Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Firefox,etc.), a media player (e.g., an MP3 player, a streaming media fileplayer from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., or fromRealNetworks, Inc., of Seattle, Wash., Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino,Calif., Macromedia Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., etc.), a viewer (e.g.,an Abobe Acrobat pdf reader), etc. Examples of content rendering devicesinclude video games (e.g., Sony Play Station II and PSP, MicrosoftX-Box, Nintendo GameCube, etc.), mobile telephones, televisions, radios,set-top boxes (STBs), etc.

A “content owner” is a person or entity that has some property right inthe content of a media property (e.g., document). A content owner may bean author of the content. In addition, or alternatively, a content ownermay have rights to reproduce the content, rights to prepare derivativeworks of the content, rights to display or perform the content publicly,and/or other proscribed rights in the content. Although a content servermight be a content owner in the content of the documents it serves, thisis not necessary. A “Web publisher” is an example of a content owner.

“User information” may include user behavior information and/or userprofile information.

“E-mail information” may include any information included in an e-mail(also referred to as “internal e-mail information”), informationderivable from information included in the e-mail and/or informationrelated to the e-mail, as well as extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of informationderived from e-mail information is information extracted or otherwisederived from search results returned in response to a search querycomposed of terms extracted from an e-mail subject line. Examples ofinformation related to e-mail information include e-mail informationabout one or more other e-mails sent by the same sender of a givene-mail, or user information about an e-mail recipient. Informationderived from or related to e-mail information may be referred to as“external e-mail information.”

§4.2 EXEMPLARY ADVERTISING ENVIRONMENTS IN WHICH, OR WITH WHICH,EMBODIMENTS CONSISTENT WITH THE PRESENT INVENTION MAY OPERATE

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating various ways video content can bedelivered and received. Video content can be consumed at various clientlocations, using various devices 110 such as, for example, a customerpremises 111 (such as a home residence or business which may includecomputers, video players, televisions, etc.), a mobile telephone withvideo functionality 112, a video player 113, a laptop computer 114, acar video player 115, etc. Video content may be transmitted from varioussources such as, for example, terrestrial television (or data)transmission stations 120, cable television (or data) transmissionstations 130, satellite television (or data) transmission stations 140,via satellites 142, and video content servers (e.g., Webcasting servers,podcasting servers, video streaming servers, video download Websites,etc.) 150, via network(s) 160 such as the Internet for example, andvideo phone service providers 170 via network(s) 160 such as the PublicSwitched Telephone Network (“PSTN”) and the Internet for example.Although not all connections are shown, one or more of the transmissionstations 120, 130 and 140 may be coupled with the network(s) 160.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an advertising environment. The environment mayinclude an ad entry, maintenance and delivery system (simply referred toas an ad server) 220. Advertisers 210 may directly, or indirectly,enter, maintain, and track ad information in the system 220. The ads maybe in the form of graphical ads such as so-called banner ads, text onlyads, image ads, audio ads, video ads, ads combining one of more of anyof such components, etc. The ads may also include embedded information,such as a link, a telephone number, an e-mail address, and/or machineexecutable instructions. Ad consumers 230 may submit requests for adsto, accept ads responsive to their request from, and provide usageinformation to, the system 220. An entity other than an ad consumer 230may initiate a request for ads. Although not shown, other entities mayprovide usage information (e.g., whether or not a conversion orselection related to the ad occurred) to the system 220. This usageinformation may include measured or observed user behavior related toads that have been served.

The ad server 220 may be similar to, or have some similar features as,the one described in the '900 application. An advertising program mayinclude information concerning accounts, campaigns, creatives,targeting, etc. The term “account” relates to information for a givenadvertiser (e.g., a unique e-mail address, a password, billinginformation, etc.). A “campaign” or “ad campaign” refers to one or moregroups of one or more advertisements, and may include a start date, anend date, budget information, geo-targeting information, syndicationinformation, etc. For example, Honda may have one advertising campaignfor its automotive line, and a separate advertising campaign for itsmotorcycle line. The campaign for its automotive line may have one ormore ad groups, each containing one or more ads. Each ad group mayinclude targeting information (e.g., a set of keywords, a set of one ormore topics, etc.), and price information (e.g., cost, average cost, ormaximum cost (per impression, per selection, per conversion, etc.)).Therefore, a single cost, a single maximum cost, and/or a single averagecost may be associated with one or more keywords, and/or topics. Asstated, each ad group may have one or more ads or “creatives” (That is,ad content that is ultimately rendered to an end user.). Each ad mayalso include a link to a URL (e.g., a landing Web page, such as the homepage of an advertiser, or a Web page associated with a particularproduct or server). Alternatively, or in addition, each ad may includeembedded information for initiating a telephone call (e.g., tofacilitate providing product or service information, or to facilitatecompleting an order). Alternatively, or in addition, each ad may includeinformation for initiating a message (e.g., facilitate providing productor service information, or to facilitate completing an order).Naturally, the ad information may include more or less information, andmay be organized in a number of different ways.

FIG. 3 illustrates an environment 300 in which the present invention maybe used. A user device (also referred to as a “client” or “clientdevice”) 350 may include a media player (e.g., an MP3 player, astreaming audio player, a streaming video player, a television, acomputer, a mobile device, etc.) a browser facility (such as theExplorer browser from Microsoft, the Opera Web Browser from OperaSoftware of Norway, the Navigator browser from AOL/Time Warner, theFirefox browser from Mozilla, etc.), an e-mail facility (e.g., Outlookfrom Microsoft), telephony means, etc. A search engine 320 may permituser devices 350 to search collections of documents (e.g., Web pages). Acontent server 310 may permit user devices 350 to access documents, suchas video documents (such as videos hosted and available at Google Video)for example. An e-mail server (such as GMail from Google, Hotmail fromMicrosoft Network, Yahoo Mail, etc.) 340 may be used to provide e-mailfunctionality to user devices 350. The e-mails may include videoattachments and/or video messages. An ad server 310 may be used to serveads to user devices 350. The ads may be served in association withsearch results provided by the search engine 320. However,content-relevant ads may be served in association with content providedby the content server 330, e-mail supported by the e-mail server (orvoice-mail supported by a voice-mail server) 340 and/or user devicee-mail facilities, video content served by video server 360 and/orplayed by user device video player facilities. Video communicationsservice provider facilities 370 may be used to provide video-phone orvideo-walkie-talkie services over the network(s) 360. For example, somecompanies provide voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) services,

As discussed in the '900 application, ads may be targeted to documentsserved by content servers. Thus, one example of an ad consumer 230 is ageneral content server 330 that receives requests for documents (e.g.,articles, discussion threads, music, audio, video (e.g., televisionsprograms, music videos, video mail, a streamed video file, etc.),graphics, search results, Web page listings, etc.), and retrieves therequested document in response to, or otherwise services, the request.The content server may broadcast content as well (e.g., not necessarilyresponsive to a request). The content server may submit a request forads to the ad server 220/310. Such an ad request may include ad spotinformation (e.g., a number of ads desired, a duration, type of adseligible, etc.). The ad request may also include document requestinformation. This information may include the document itself (e.g., apage, a video file, a segment of a video stream, etc.), a category ortopic corresponding to the content of the document or the documentrequest (e.g., arts, business, computers, arts-movies, arts-music,etc.), part or all of the document request, content age, content type(e.g., text, graphics, video, audio, mixed media, etc.), geo-locationinformation, document information, etc.

The content server 330 may combine the (e.g., requested) document withone or more of the advertisements provided by the ad server 220/310.This combined information including the document content andadvertisement(s) is then forwarded towards the end user device 350 thatrequested the document or that configured itself to receive thedocument, for presentation to the user. Finally, the content server 330may transmit information about the ads and how, when, and/or where theads are to be rendered (e.g., ad spot, position, selection or not,impression time, impression date, size, temporal length, volume,conversion or not, etc.) back to the ad server 220/310. Alternatively,or in addition, such information may be provided back to the ad server220/310 by some other means.

The offline content provider 332 may provide information about ad spotsin an upcoming publication, and perhaps information about thepublication (e.g., the content or topics or concepts of the content), tothe ad server 310. In response, the ad server 310 may provide a set ofads relevant the content of the publication for at least some of the adspots. Examples of offline content providers 332 include, for example,magazine publishers, newspaper publishers, book publishers, offlinebroadcasts, offline music publishers, offline video game publishers, atheatrical production, a concert, a sports event, etc.

Owners of the offline ad spot properties 334 may provide informationabout ad spots in their offline property (e.g., a JumboTron™, ProStar™,DiamondVision™, AstroVision™, or SmartVision™ video ad for an NBA gamein San Antonio, Tex.). In response, the ad sever may provide a set ofads relevant to the property for at least some of the ad spots. Examplesof offline properties 334 include, for example, a billboard, a stadiumscore board, and outfield wall, the side of truck trailer, etc.

Another example of an ad consumer 230 is the search engine 320. A searchengine 320 may receive queries for search results. In response, thesearch engine may retrieve relevant search results (e.g., from an indexof Web pages). An exemplary search engine is described in the article S.Brin and L. Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual SearchEngine,” Seventh International World Wide Web Conference, Brisbane,Australia and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 (both incorporated herein, intheir entirety, by reference). Such search results may include, forexample, lists of Web page titles, snippets of text extracted from thoseWeb pages, and hypertext links to those Web pages, and may be groupedinto a predetermined number of (e.g., ten) search results.

The search engine 320 may submit a request for ads to the ad server220/310. The request may include a number of ads desired. This numbermay depend on the search results, the amount Of screen or page spaceoccupied by the search results, the size and shape of the ads, etc. Inone embodiment, the number of desired ads will be from one to ten, andpreferably from three to five. The request for ads may also include thequery (as entered or parsed), information based on the query (such asgeolocation information, whether the query came from an affiliate and anidentifier of such an affiliate), and/or information associated with, orbased on, the search results. Such information may include, for example,identifiers related to the search results (e.g., document identifiers or“docIDs”), scores related to the search results (e.g., informationretrieval (“IR”) scores such as dot products of feature vectorscorresponding to a query and a document, Page Rank scores, and/orcombinations of IR scores and Page Rank scores), snippets of textextracted from identified documents (e.g., Web pages), full text ofidentified documents, topics of identified documents, feature vectors ofidentified documents, etc.

The search engine 320 may combine the search results with one or more ofthe advertisements provided by the ad server 220/310. This combinedinformation including the search results and advertisement(s) is thenforwarded towards the user that submitted the search, for presentationto the user. Preferably, the search results are maintained as distinctfrom the ads, so as not to confuse the user between paid advertisementsand presumably neutral search results.

Finally, the search engine 320 may transmit information about the ad andwhen, where, and/or how the ad was to be rendered (e.g., position,selection or not, impression time, impression date, size, conversion ornot, etc.) back to the ad server 220/310. Alternatively, or in addition,such information may be provided back to the ad server 220/310 by someother means.

The e-mail server 340 may be thought of, generally, as a content serverin which a document served is simply an e-mail. Further, e-mailapplications (such as Microsoft Outlook for example) may be used to sendand/or receive e-mail. Therefore, an e-mail server 340 or applicationmay be thought of as an ad consumer 230. Thus, e-mails may be thought ofas documents, and targeted ads may be served in association with suchdocuments. For example, one or more ads may be served in, under, over,or otherwise in association with an e-mail. Although not shown, avideo-voice-mail server may be thought of, generally, as a contentserver.

The video server 360 may be thought of, generally, as a content serverin which a document served is simply a video document, such as a videostream or a video file for example. Further, video player applications(such as RealNetwork's Real media player, Microsoft's Media Player,Apple's Quicktime player, Macromedia's Flash player, etc.) may be usedto render video files. Therefore, a video server 360 or application maybe thought of as an ad consumer 240. Thus, ads may be served inassociation with video documents. For example, one or more ads may beserved before, during, or after a music video, program, program segment,etc. Alternatively, one or more ads may be served in association with amusic video, program, program segment, etc.

Finally, the video communications service provider facilities 370 mayalso consume ads, such as ads relevant to a topic or topics of avideophone conversation.

Although the foregoing examples described servers as (i) requesting ads,and (ii) combining them with content, one or both of these operationsmay be performed by a client device (such as an end user computer forexample).

§4.3 EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 4 is a bubble diagram of exemplary operations that may be performedin a manner consistent with the present invention, as well asinformation that may be used and/or generated by such operations. Theoperations may include one or more of relevancy informationdetermination and/or extraction operations 410, ad spot determinationoperations 420, relevant ad determination operations 440, advertiseraccounting/billing operations 450, ad information entry and managementoperations 455, ad user feedback tracking operations 460, ad arbitrationoperations 470 and ad delivery (e.g., insertion) operations 480. Theinformation may include video document relevancy information 415, adspot information 430, and ad information 445.

Relevancy information determination and/or extraction operations 410 mayaccept video content (and perhaps a video document identifier) 405 andgenerate video document relevancy information 415. Exemplary methods forperforming such relevancy information determination and/or extractionoperations 410 are described below with reference to FIG. 8. Exemplarydata structures for storing such video document relevancy information415 are described below with reference to FIG. 5.

Ad spot determination operations 420 may accept video content 405 and/orvideo publisher provided ad spot information 425 and may generate adspot information 430. Exemplary methods for performing such ad spotdetermination operations 420 are described below with reference to FIG.9. Exemplary data structures for storing such ad spot information 430are described below with reference to FIG. 6.

Relevant ad determination operations 440 may use video documentrelevancy information 415, ad spot information 430, and ad information445 (and perhaps other relevancy information) to generate one or morerelevant ads 465. Exemplary methods for performing relevant addetermination operations 440 are described below with reference to FIG.10. Exemplary data structures for storing ad information are describedbelow with reference to FIG. 7.

Ad arbitration operations 470 may use ad information 445 to score therelevant ads 465 and to generate associations 475 of relevant ads to adspots. Exemplary methods for performing ad arbitration operations 470are described below with reference to FIG. 11.

Ad delivery operations 480 may accept ad, ad spot associations 475 andserve the ads in association with (e.g., insert the ad into) videocontent 405. For example, a mixer may be used to combine a video ad withan appropriate portion (e.g., an ad spot) of a video document. Suchinsertion may occur, for example, at the video content server, and/or atthe client device.

Advertiser accounting/billing operations 450, ad information entry andmanagement operations 455 and ad user feedback tracking operations 460may be performed using techniques described in the '427 application andin the '900 application, and/or may use techniques known to thoseskilled in the art.

§4.3.1 Exemplary Methods and Data Structures

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 800 for extractingand/or determining relevancy information for a video document (or asegment thereof) in a manner consistent with the present invention.Video and/or audio content from the video document may be analyzed toderive textual information. (Block 810) Textual information may then beanalyzed to generate relevancy information (Block 820) before the method800 is left (Node 830).

Referring back to block 810, textual information may be derived fromaudio information in an audio-video document by performing speechrecognition on various audio feeds, producing hypothesized wordsannotated with confidence scores, or producing a lattice which containsmany hypotheses (therefore less likely to miss a keyword). Convertingaudio to text can be achieved by known automatic speech recognitiontechniques. (See, e.g., Kai-Fu Lee, “Automatic Speech Recognition—TheDevelopment of the SPHINX System,” Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell,Mass., 1989, incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference.)

Once a (e.g., rough) transcription is available, relevance information(e.g., terms, weighted terms, concepts, weighted concepts, categories(e.g., vertical categories), weighted categories, etc.) may be derivedfrom the transcription and used to select relevant ads. Even if currentspeech recognition technology is not accurate enough for certain enduser applications, it may be good enough to provide a roughtranscription, from which a gist (or topic(s)) of an audio document canbe determined.

Alternatively, or in addition, the content owner may provide Meta dataabout its video content. Such Meta data may include, for example, one ormore of a title, a description, a transcript, Tribune Meta data, arecommended viewing demographic, etc.

Referring back to block 820, the textual information may be analyzed togenerate relevancy information using various techniques, such as thosedescribed in the '427 and '900 applications, and those described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/112,716 (incorporated herein, in itsentirety, by reference and referred to as “the '716 application”), filedon Apr. 22, 2005, titled “CATEGORIZING OBJECTS, SUCH AS DOCUMENTS AND/ORCLUSTERS, WITH RESPECT TO A TAXONOMY AND DATA STRUCTURES DERIVED FROMSUCH CATEGORIZATION” and listing David Gehrking, Ching Law and AndrewMaxwell as inventors, etc. Relevancy information may include, forexample, one or more of term vectors, weighted term vectors, clusters,weighted clusters, categories (e.g., vertical categories), weightedcategories, etc. The clusters may be probabilistic hierarchicalinferential learner (referred to as “PHIL”) clusters, such as thosedescribed in U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/416,144 (referredto as “the '144 provisional” and incorporated herein, in its entirety,by reference), titled “Methods and Apparatus for ProbabilisticHierarchical Inferential Learner,” filed on Oct. 3, 2002, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/676,571 (referred to as “the '571application” and incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference),titled “Methods and Apparatus for Characterizing Documents Based onCluster Related Words,” filed on Sep. 30, 2003 and listing Georges Harkand Noam Shazeer as inventors. Such PHIL clusters may be generated, forexample, using the techniques described in the '144 provisional and the'571 application. The source of the textual information may be thatderived from an analysis of the audio content, such as in block 810,and/or Meta data provided by the content owner:

Alternatively, or in addition, the video publisher (or some otherentity) may have annotated the video document with textual informationor encoded textual information in the video content (e.g., in packets,portions of packets, portions of streams, headers, footers, etc.). Forexample, a video broadcaster may provide in their broadcast, a stationidentifier, a program identifier, location information, etc. In thiscase, genre and location information might be derived from the videobroadcast. Such relevance information may be used to target relevantads. As another example, video disks may encode information about amovie such as, for example, title, actors and actresses, directors,scenes, etc. Such information may be used to lookup a textual transcriptof the movie. As yet another example, a request for a video may have anassociated IP address from which location information can be derived. Asyet another example, a program may be annotated with keywords, topics,etc. Such relevance information may be used to target relevant ads.

Alternatively, or in addition, the audio information in an audio-videodocument may be analyzed to generate other types of relevancyinformation. For example, the gender (e.g., due to pitch, tone, etc,),nationality, and/or ethnicity (e.g., due to language, accent, etc.) of aspeaker in voice audio of audio-visual content (e.g., a participant in aconversation) may be determined from audio analysis. (See, e.g., M. A.Siegler, U. Jain, B. Raj, and R. M. Stern, “Automatic Segmentation,Classification and Clustering of Broadcast News Audio,” Proceedings ofthe Ninth Spoken Language Systems Technology Workshop, Harriman, N.Y.,1996; and Greg Sanders, “Metadata Extraction for EARS,” RichTranscription Workshop, Vienna, Va., 2002 (both incorporated herein, intheir entirety, by reference).)

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary data structure 500 for storing videodocument relevancy information in a manner consistent with the presentinvention. As shown, the data structure 500 may include a plurality ofentries corresponding to a plurality of rows. Each entry may include avideo document identifier 510 and relevancy information 520. Therelevancy information may include one or more of terms, weighted terms,concepts, weighted concepts, clusters, weighted clusters, verticalcategories, weighted vertical categories, location information, userinformation, etc.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 900 for determining adspots in a manner consistent with the present invention. It may bedetermined whether or not a video document publisher provided ad spotinformation. (Decision block 910) That is, ad spot information may beassociated with a document, but provided separately from (i.e., notincluded in) the document. If so, the provided ad spot information maybe used and/or saved for later use (Block 920) before the method 900 isleft (Node 950). Referring back to decision block 910, if the publisheror some other entity did not provide ad spot information, the videodocument may be analyzed to determine ad spot information (Block 930).The determined ad spot information may then be used and/or saved forlater use (Block 940) before the method 900 is left (Node 950).

Referring back to block 920, the video publisher or some other entitymay provide absolute or relative times when ad spots are to start. Thepublisher or some other entity may further provide duration or timeswhen the ad spots are to stop. For example, a video publisher mayspecify that a first ad spot is to start at 8:20 AM EST and last two (2)minutes, a second ad spot is to start at 8:40 AM EST and last four (4)minutes and a third ad spot is to start at 8:52 and last six (6)minutes. As another example, a video publisher may specify that a three(3) minute ad spot is to occur every 30 minutes starting at 8:00 AM EST.As yet another example, a video publisher may specify that a two (2)minute ad spot is to occur every 15 minutes after the start of a videoprogram, and a four (4) minute ad spot is to occur 50 minutes into thevideo program.

Referring back to block 930, the video document itself may be analyzedto determine ad spot information. That is, ad spot information may becarried in the video document itself. For example, markers (e.g., audiotones) embedded within an audio-video program may encode that an Xsecond ad spot is to start in Y seconds. As another example, datacarried in packets of a video stream or a container file may specify adspot information.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary data structure 600 for storing ad spotinformation in a manner consistent with the present invention. As shown,the data structure 600 may include a plurality of entries correspondingto a plurality of rows. Each entry may include an ad spot identifier 610and ad spot information 620. The ad spot identifier 610 may include avideo document identifier to which the ad spot belongs. The ad spotinformation 620 may include information related to when the ad spot isto occur (e.g., start date and time and duration, start date and timeand end date and time, time from reference time to start and duration,times from reference time to start and end, etc.). In addition, the adspot information may include policy information such as filters. Oneclass of filters may include those that filter ads based on theircontent of the ad. For example, a video program which concerns healthyliving might filter out ads for cigarettes. As another example, a videoprogram for kids might filter out ads which may include obscene orsuggestive language. As yet another example, a video program dealingwith gambling addiction may filter out ads for casinos. Another class offilters may include those that filter based on the source of the ad. Forexample, an Internet television station might block ads for programs ona competing Internet television station. Other techniques forimplementing advertising policies, such as those described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/656,917 (incorporated herein, in itsentirety, by reference and referred to as “the '917 application”),titled “IDENTIFYING AND/OR BLOCKING ADS SUCH AS DOCUMENT-SPECIFICCOMPETITIVE ADS”, filed on Sep. 5, 2003 and listing Brian Axe, RamaRanganath and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors; and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/937,460 (incorporated herein, in its entirety,by reference and referred to as “the '460 application”), titled“FACILITATING THE BLOCKING OF AD SERVING”, filed on Sep. 9, 2004 andlisting Vibhu Mittal, Peter Norvig and Mehran Sahami as inventors, forexample, may be used.

The ad spot information 620 may also include information such as, forexample, one or more of the source location of the video programincluding the ad spot, the destination location of the client devicereceiving the video program including the ad spot, a client device typereceiving the video program including the ad spot, etc.

Although some of the exemplary ad spots described above had a definitelength, ads needn't have a fixed or determined length. For example, inthe context of a media player with a display screen, a text ad may bedisplayed (e.g., for a time period defined by the advertiser, for aperiod of time defined by the video publisher, until the next ad spot,etc.) without interrupting the video program.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1000 for determiningads relevant to ad spots in a video document in a manner consistent withthe present invention. As shown, video document relevancy information,such as that stored in the data structure 500 of FIG. 5 for example, maybe accepted. (Block 1010) Alternatively, or in addition, ad spotinformation, such as video document source location, client devicelocation, client device type, time, date, etc. may be accepted. (Block1020) Alternatively, or in addition, other relevancy information suchas, for example, one or more of end user information (e.g., pastbehavior, demographics, etc.), source information (e.g., sports station,classical music and theater station, news station, etc.), etc. may beaccepted. (Block 1030) Ad information may then be analyzed to determinecandidate ads relevant to the video document, ad spot, and/or otherrelevancy information. (Block 1040) For example, techniques such asthose described in the '427 and '900 patent applications may be used.The method 1000 is then left. (Node 1050)

Referring back to block 1040, the ad information may include targetinginformation provided by the advertiser. Alternatively, or in addition,the ad information may include targeting information derived from the adcreative and/or information associated with the ad such as an ad landingpage. Such targeting information may include one or more of keywords,vertical categories, genres, concepts, video program identifiers, videoserver identifiers, user identifiers, languages, stations, videoservers, user types, locations, times, dates, client devices, otherserving constraints, etc.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1100 for arbitratingrelevant ads competing for ad spots in a video document in a mannerconsistent with the present invention. Candidate ads are accepted.(Block 1110) For each candidate ad, price information and/or performanceinformation may be accepted (Block 1120), and each of the candidate adsmay be scored using the price information and/or performance information(Block 1130). Alternatively, or in addition, the score may consider adegree of relevancy of the ad to the video document (or segmentthereof). Finally, the best scoring candidate ads are selected to fillavailable ad spots (Block 1140) before the method 1100 is left (Node1150).

Referring back to block 1120, the price information may be, for example,a price per impression, a maximum price per impression, a price perselection, a maximum price per selection, a price per conversion, amaximum price per conversion, etc. The performance information may be,for example, a selection rate, a conversion rate, end user ratings, etc.

Referring back to block 1130, the candidate ads may be scored using, forexample, techniques described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/112,656 (incorporated herewith and referred to as “the '656application”), titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ORDERING ADVERTISEMENTSBASED ON PERFORMANCE INFORMATION”, filed on Mar. 29, 2002 and listingGeorges R. Hark, Lawrence E. Page, Jane Manning and Salar Arta Kamangaras inventors; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/112,654 (incorporatedherein, in its entirety, by reference and referred to as “the '654application”), titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ORDERING ADVERTISEMENTSBASED ON PERFORMANCE INFORMATION AND PRICE INFORMATION”, filed on Mar.29, 2002 and listing Salar Arta Kamangar, Ross Koningstein and EricVeach as inventors; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/452,791(incorporated herein, in its entirety, by reference and referred to as“the '791 application”), titled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS USING USERREQUEST INFORMATION AND USER INFORMATION”, filed on Jun. 2, 2003 andlisting Krishna Bharat, Stephen Lawrence, Mehran Sahami and Amit Singhalas inventors; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/610,322 (incorporatedherein, in its entirety, by reference and referred to as “the '322application”), titled “RENDERING ADVERTISEMENTS WITH DOCUMENTS HAVINGONE OR MORE TOPICS USING USER TOPIC INTEREST INFORMATION”, filed on Jun.30, 2003 and listing Krishna Bharat as the inventor; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/877,790 (incorporated herein, in its entirety,by reference and referred to as “the 790 application”), titled “COSTDISCOUNTING TO PROVIDE DOMINANT PARTICIPATION STRATEGY ARBITRATION FORONLINE ADVERTISING AND ARBITRATIONS SUPPORTING OFFERS FROM DIFFERENTCOST DISCOUNTING METHODOLOGIES”, filed on Jun. 25, 2004 and listing JohnLamping, Robert Shillingsburg and Eric Veach as inventors; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/169,323 (incorporated herein, in its entirety,by reference and referred to as “the '323 application”), titled “USINGTHE UTILITY OF CONFIGURATIONS IN AD SERVING DECISIONS”, filed on Jun.28, 2005 and listing Amit Patel and Hal Varian as inventors; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/026,507 (incorporated herein, in its entirety,by reference and referred to as “the '507 application”), titled“GENERATING AND/OR SERVING LOCAL AREA ADVERTISEMENTS, SUCH ASADVERTISEMENTS FOR DEVICES WITH CALL FUNCTIONALITY”, filed on Dec. 30,2004 and listing Shumeet Baluja and Henry A. Rowley as inventors; U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/184,053 (incorporated herein, in itsentirety, by reference and referred to as “the '053 application”),titled “SELECTING AND/OR SCORING CONTENT-RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”, filedon Jul. 18, 2005 and listing Darrell Anderson, Alexander Paul Carobus,Giao Nguyen and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors; and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,583 (incorporated herein, in its entirety,by reference and referred to as “the '583 application”), titled“FLEXIBLE ADVERTISING SYSTEM WHICH ALLOWS ADVERTISERS WITH DIFFERENTVALUE PROPOSITIONS TO EXPRESS SUCH VALUE PROPOSITIONS TO THE ADVERTISINGSYSTEM”, filed on Sep. 16, 2005, and listing Sumit Agarwal, GregoryJoseph Badros, and John Fu as inventors.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary data structure 700 for storing adinformation in a manner consistent with the present invention. As shown,the data structure 700 may include a plurality of entries correspondingto a plurality of rows. Each entry may include an ad identifier 710, anad creative 720, targeting information 730, price information 740 and/orperformance information 750. The targeting information 730 may include,for example, one or more of keywords, vertical categories, genres,concepts, video program identifiers, video server identifiers, useridentifiers, user types, languages, stations, locations, times, dates,client devices, other serving constraints, etc. The targetinginformation 730 may be provided by the advertiser. Alternatively, or inaddition, the targeting information 730 may be derived from the adcreative and/or information associated with the ad such as an ad landingpage. The price information 740 may be, for example, a price perimpression, a maximum price per impression, a price per selection, amaximum price per selection, a price per conversion, a maximum price perconversion, etc. The performance information 750 may be, for example, aselection rate, a call-through rate, a message-through rate, aconversion rate, end user ratings, etc.

§4.3.2 Exemplary Apparatus

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of apparatus 1200 that may be used to performat least some operations, and store at least some information, in amanner consistent with the present invention. The apparatus 1200basically includes one or more processors 1210, one or more input/outputinterface units 1230, one or more storage devices 1220, and one or moresystem buses and/or networks 1240 for facilitating the communication ofinformation among the coupled elements. One or more input devices 1232and one or more output devices 1234 may be coupled with the one or moreinput/output interfaces 1230.

The one or more processors 1210 may execute machine-executableinstructions (e.g., C or C++ running on the Solaris operating systemavailable from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. or the Linuxoperating system widely available from a number of vendors such as RedHat, Inc. of Durham, N.C.) to perform one or more aspects of the presentinvention. At least a portion of the machine executable instructions maybe stored (temporarily or more permanently) on the one or more storagedevices 1220 and/or may be received from an external source via one ormore input interface units 1230.

In one embodiment, the machine 1200 may be one or more conventionalpersonal computers. In this case, the processing units 1210 may be oneor more microprocessors. The bus 1240 may include a system bus. Thestorage devices 1220 may include system memory, such as read only memory(ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM). The storage devices 1220 mayalso include a hard disk drive for reading from and writing to a harddisk, a magnetic disk drive for reading from or writing to a (e.g.,removable) magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive for reading from orwriting to a removable (magneto-) optical disk such as a compact disk orother (magneto-) optical media.

A user may enter commands and information into the personal computerthrough input devices 1232, such as a keyboard and pointing device(e.g., a mouse) for example. Other input devices such as a microphone, ajoystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like, may also(or alternatively) be included. These and other input devices are oftenconnected to the processing unit(s) 1210 through an appropriateinterface 1230 coupled to the system bus 1240. The output devices 1234may include a monitor or other type of display device, which may also beconnected to the system bus 1240 via an appropriate interface. Inaddition to (or instead of) the monitor, the personal computer mayinclude other (peripheral) output devices (not shown), such as speakersand printers for example.

Referring back to FIG. 3, one or more machines 1200 may be used as enduser client devices 350, content servers 330, audio content servers 360,telephone service provider facilities 370, search engines 320, e-mail(or v-mail) servers 340, and/or ad servers 310.

§4.3.3 Refinements and Alternatives

Referring back to operations 410 of FIG. 4, relevancy information may beprovided by the video publisher before the video document is served(e.g., broadcast, multicast, unicast, transferred, etc.). If the videodocument has been previously saved (e.g., previously recorded), it canbe analyzed before it is served (and perhaps re-analyzed during servingand/or playback). If the video document is being served live, it may beanalyzed as it is being served (perhaps shortly before it is decoded andplayed at a client device).

Referring back to operations 420 of FIG. 4, ad spots may be provided,separate from the video document, by the video publisher before thevideo document is served. Alternatively, or in addition, ad spots may bedetermined based on information encoded in the video document (e.g.,well before the occurrence of the ad spot, or just before the ad spot).Thus, for example, a video document may, early on, encode the fact thatthere are three (3) two-minute ad spots at 20 minutes, 40 minutes and 55minutes into the document. As another example, a video document mayencode the fact that there is a two-minute ad spot in 10 seconds, 19minutes and 50 seconds into the document. Such encoding may be in theform of markers, text information in video packets or video streampackets, executable code (e.g., Javascript) to call an ad server, etc.

Note that since, in some cases, video documents can be downloaded ondemand, the length of the video document may be varied to accommodatemore or less ad spots. For example, if there are a lot of very relevantads, and/or the advertisers are willing to spend a lot for impressions,more ad spot time may be provided. Thus, a ratio of video contenttime-to-ad time may be decreased or increased depending on one or moreof (A) a degree of ad relevancy, (B) a revenue benefit of having more adspots, (C) a decrease in user utility (e.g., user annoyance) at havingmore ad spots, (D) a level of user demand for the content, (E) an extentof end user funding of the content, etc. Thus, end user utility can bebalanced against advertising revenues.

If the video document has been previously saved (e.g., previouslyrecorded), an arbitration to determine ads to be served in various adspots may occur before the video document is served (e.g., broadcast,multicast, unicast, transferred, etc.). If the video document is beingserved live, the arbitration may take place as it is being served(perhaps shortly before it is decoded and played at a client device). Ifthe video document is downloaded (e.g., using some transfer protocolsuch as FTP), the document may include executable code to initiate an adarbitration when the video document is played (e.g., when a play isinitiated). In any case, ads may be provided with (e.g., inserted into)the video document (e.g., a stream carrying the video content) after thearbitration. If the video document has been previously saved, all adspots in the video document may be arbitrated one time. In this way, adspots at parts of the video document in higher demand (e.g., the startof the video document) may be filled with higher scoring ads.

A video document may be divided into segments, each including ad spots.In such an embodiment, each segment may be considered to be a videodocument itself. Relevant ads may be determined on the basis of aparticular video segment, or both the particular video segment (e.g.,weighted more) and the video document as a whole (e.g., weighted less).Similarly, relevancy information may be weighted based on a timing oftranscriptions within a segment or within a video document. For example,a topic that is temporally closer to an ad spot may be weighted morethan a topic or topics (perhaps in the same segment), that is temporallyfarther from the ad spot.

The ad information may include whether or not the advertiser wants orconsents to its ad being served more than one time in a given videodocument (instance). For example, an advertiser might specify that itsad is to be served no more than N times with an instance of a videodocument (e.g., a unicast video stream). Alternatively, or in addition,the advertising network and/or the video document publisher mayimplement policies which limit the number of times a given advertisementcan be served with an instance of a video document.

Although many of the examples were described in the context of offers(or maximum offers) per impression, embodiments consistent with thepresent invention may consider other offers such as offers (or maximumoffers) per user selection (or call, or messaging, etc.), offers (ormaximum offers) per conversion (e.g., telephone call, item purchase,item order, etc.). Similarly, scoring may be a function of one or moreoffers and perhaps the likelihood of one or more user actions. Althoughad scoring may reflect an expected cost per impression (e.g., bid perimpression, bid per selection*selection rate or probability, bid perconversion*conversion rate or probability, etc.), other techniques forscoring ads may be used. Such techniques may consider end user utility(e.g., relevance, annoyance factor, etc.) of an ad.

Although some of the embodiments consistent with the present inventiondescribed inserting a video advertisement within a video document, theadvertisement may be in other formats and may be served with a videodocument. For example, a text advertisement, an image advertisement, anaudio only advertisement, etc. might be played with a video document.Thus, although the format of the ad may match that of the video documentwith which it is served, the format of the ad need not match that of thevideo document. The ad may be rendered in the same screen position asthe video content, or in a different screen position (e.g., adjacent tothe video content). A video ad may include video components, as well asadditional components (e.g., text, audio, etc.). Such additionalcomponents may be rendered on the same display as the video components,and/or on some other output means of the client device. Similarly, videoads may be played with non-video documents (e.g., in Iframes of aWebpage) in a manner consistent with the present invention.

Although FIGS. 4 and 10 described determining relevant ads for a givenvideo document, embodiments consistent with the present invention may beused to determine video documents (or ad spots thereof) relevant to agiven ad. For example, an advertiser may be presented with videodocuments considered to be relevant to its ad. The documents may beordered using such relevance. The advertiser may elect to try to haveits advertisement served with a video document or documents (or with anad spot(s) thereof). The advertiser may express such an election(s) asan offer to have its ad served with the document(s). Other advertisersmay do the same. When the video document is served, contention among adsthat are eligible to be served with the video document may be arbitrated(e.g., using an auction).

Ad-based revenue may be shared between the ad serving network and thevideo publisher. The video publisher may collect money from end users ona subscription basis, on a per download basis, and/or a per renderingbasis. Ad revenue shared with the video publisher may be used tosubsidize (e.g., reduce or eliminate) user costs. In fact, ad revenue(e.g., ad network's share and/or audio publisher's share) may be used topay users to download or render video documents including ads. Forexample, if a user normally pays $1.00 to download a music video, theuser might be charged less (or nothing, or actually paid) to downloadthe music video with one or more advertisements. Advertising revenuesmay be used to subsidize other content and/or services such asvideo-voice-mail, video-live chat, music video, music video plays, videoprogram (e.g., television show episode, television show season, movie,etc.) downloads, video program plays, video-communications services,etc.

Arbitrations in embodiments consistent with the present invention may beperformed on a per-broadcast (or per-multicast) basis, or on a per-serveor per-download basis. Performing arbitrations on a per-serve orper-download basis has the potential to generate more revenue. Forexample, under a per-broadcast agreement on a video document with100,000 ad spots, if advertiser A is willing to pay $5.00/impression,with a budget limit of $50,000.00, advertiser B is willing to pay$2.00/impression, with a budget limit of $60,000.00, and advertiser C iswilling to pay $1.00/impression, with a budget limit of $100,000.00, adC would be served 100,000 times, netting $100,000.00. On the other hand,under a per ad spot arbitration, ad A would be served 10,000 times, ad Bwould be served 30,000 times and ad C would be served 60,000 times,netting $170,000.00 ($50,000.00+$60,000.00+$60,000.00).

Note that there are many sources of video documents with which ads maybe served. As a first example, the advertising network itself may host avideo server. As a second example, larger and smaller Websites thatprovide video content may partner with the advertising network. As athird example, other providers of documents (e.g., Web pages, email,etc.) may partner with an advertising network to show video ads.Exemplary business methods used in these various contexts are describedbelow.

The advertising network itself may provide a video server hosting thirdparty videos (e.g., Google video). Content providers on an advertisingnetwork hosted Website, as well as the advertising network itself, mayboth benefit through ad revenue sharing. As another example, theadvertising network may receive all of the ad revenue, with the contentprovider receiving the benefit of having their video(s) hosted for free,or at a subsidized or reduced cost.

A larger Website that provides video content may partner with theadvertising network. For example, ABCnews.com may play news clipsrelated to the increasing frequency of hurricanes in recent years.Assuming that the Website is an adverting network partner, theadvertising network will supply relevant ads for the news clips. Forexample, Red Cross ads may be targeted to the viewer based on locationand include the phone number of the nearest Red Cross office. Thispermits the Red Cross to use their local cable television advertising onthe Web as well. In this case, ABCnews.com will be hosting their ownvideo content, but there will be a server call out to ad servers of theadvertising network, from which a video ad will be retrieved andinserted into the ABCnews.com video stream. The larger Website, as wellas the advertising network itself, may both benefit through ad revenuesharing.

A smaller Website that provides video content may partner with theadvertising network. Smaller Websites may not wish to go through thehassle of hosting their own videos. The advertising network can host thevideos on the smaller Website (perhaps provided that they meet withvarious Terms of Use) and then have the videos with ads show up in aniframe on the smaller Website. The smaller Website, as well as theadvertising network itself, may both benefit through ad revenue sharing.As another example, the advertising network may receive all of the adrevenue, with the smaller Website receiving the benefit of having theirvideo(s) hosted for free, or at a subsidized or reduced cost.

Embodiments consistent with the present invention may be used withcontent other than video content. In this case, a video advertisement(s)may be targeted using the non-video content. For example, a Webpagedealing with car reviews (e.g., Forbes annual luxury car reviews) mayhost a flash video ad from GM for the latest Cadillac model.

In at least some embodiments, video ads may be played in a (e.g., flash)player having “play”, “stop”, and “pause” functionality. An amount to bepaid by an advertiser may be conditioned upon various user-video adinteractions. For example, if a video ad is stopped within the first N(e.g., N=five) seconds, it might not be considered to be an impressionfor which the advertiser would be otherwise charged.

Techniques such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/093,422 (referred to as “the '422 application” and incorporatedherein, in its entirety, by reference), filed on Mar. 30, 2005, titled:“NETWORKING ADVERTISERS AND AGENTS FOR AD AUTHORING AND/OR AD CAMPAIGNMANAGEMENT”, and listing Ross Koningstein and Sumit Agarwal as inventorsmay be used to help smaller, less sophisticated advertisers to producevideo ads. For example, consider a local Italian restaurant that wantsto show its locally targeted video ads in the context of an Italiancuisine cooking show. Unfortunately, the restaurant is a small operationand does not have experience generating television ads. When they go tosign-up for video ads, the advertising network may facilitate arelationship with a firm, such as a local firm for example, that canhelp generate a video creative that can be uploaded to the advertisingnetwork for serving.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention,uploaded video files, and/or video ads may be subject to automaticspeech recognition, transcoding, thumbnail generation, approval, and/oraddition to an index.

§4.4 EXAMPLES OF OPERATIONS

Examples of operations in an exemplary embodiment consistent with thepresent invention are described with respect to FIGS. 13-19. FIG. 13illustrates an exemplary environment 1300 consistent with the presentinvention in which video ads are served with video documents. Theenvironment 1300 includes a video server 1310, a video publisher frontend 1320, a video ad server 1330, an advertiser front end 1340, andclient devices 1360, all of which may communicate with one another viaone or more networks 1350, such as the Internet for example. Videocontent owners/creators may use the video publisher front end 1320 tostore video information 1315 on video server 1310. Advertisers may usethe advertiser front end 1340 to store video ad information 1335 onvideo ad server 1330. When a client device 1360 loads or plays a videodocument (e.g., from video server 1310) that participates in the videoadvertising network, the video ad server 1330 may determine one or morevideo ads to be served with the video document.

FIG. 14 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1400 for providing avideo content owner/creator front end in a manner consistent with thepresent invention. As indicated by event block 1410, various branches ofthe method 1400 may be performed in response to various events. Forexample, if a content owner requests to have its video file uploaded toa video server, the video file may be uploaded from a location definedby the content owner. (Block 1420) Referring back to event block 1410,if a content owner opts into (or out of) showing video ads, anindication that ads may be (or may not be) served in association withthe video is stored. (Block 1430) Referring back to event block 1410, ifa content owner selects or defines one or more ad spots, the ad spotsselected and/or defined by the content owner are stored in associationwith the video. (Block 1440) Referring back to event block 1410, if acontent owner enters meta-data, the Meta data is stored in associationwith the video. (Block 1450)

At least some embodiments consistent with the present invention may beused in the context of a server permitting hosted videos to be searched.Such embodiments may include one or more of the following features.Users may be able to click through to a Website associated with anuploaded video. For example, the content owner can add a URL and otherinformation to the uploaded video via its Video Status page in itsaccount. Once the video is available on the hosted Website, users willbe able to click the provided URL to visit the Website.

At least some embodiments consistent with the present invention mayallow video content owners to add a transcript and additional videoinformation, for example by visiting a video status page and clicking an“Add Transcript” button. If the uploaded videos are to be searchable,users will be able to find a video more easily if a transcript is addedto each video file uploaded. It may be preferred if the format of thetranscript is time-coded and saved as a .txt file. A time-codedtranscript breaks the script of the video into segments. Each segmentincludes the time the words in the script are being said in the videofollowed by the actual words of the script. For example, the time ofeach segment may be listed in the following format: HH:MM:SS.mmm

HH: Hours starting at 00

MM: Minutes starting at 00

SS: Seconds starting at 00

mmm: Milliseconds starting at 000

An example of how the time-coded transcript should appear is providedbelow:

-   -   9:54:50.000    -   Words said between 09:54:50.000 and 09:54:53.000    -   9:54:53.000    -   Words said between 09:54.53.000 and the next segment.    -   9:54:54.000    -   Words said at 09:54:54.000

Each timestamp is relative to the start of the associated video file.Various transcription companies support this. Such companies include,for example, Automatic Sync Technologies, Talking Type Captions andRhino Moon Captioning.

Video formats may include, for example, each file in MPEG4 format withMP3 audio or MPEG2 with MP3, QuickTime, Windows Media, and RealVideo.There may be preferred video specifications and/or requirements such as,for example,

-   -   NTSC (4:3) size and frame rate, deinterlaced,    -   Video Codec: MPEG2 or MPEG4 (MPEG4 preferred),    -   Video Bit rate: at least 260 Kbps (750 kbps preferred),    -   Audio Codec: MP3 vbr, Audio Bit rate: at least 70 Kbps (128 Kbps        preferred),    -   the video must contain recognizable video content (video        container files that do not contain video will not be accepted),    -   the frame rate should be above 12 frames per second,    -   the video metadata must be accurate and relevant to the content        uploaded (no spam),    -   the video must be at least 10 seconds long,    -   etc.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thevideo publisher front end may allow the video publisher to remove itsvideos after they have been uploaded.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thevideo publisher front end may allow the video publisher to specify anyprice for its video. The price may be set to zero to allow users toaccess and play the video for free.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thevideo hosting server may charge users a fee (if the video publisherspecified zero as the price for its video) or take a larger revenueshare of the price (if the video publisher has set a price greater thanzero for its video). For example, if the video publisher uploads a highdefinition file that's 500 MB and becomes extremely popular, the videohosting server might charge users a fee instead of giving it to them forfree, or ask the video publisher for a higher percentage of the revenuefrom the price of the video. Preferably, the video publisher will beinformed before a price is added, or before a higher revenue share ischarged for the video.

FIG. 15 is an exemplary set of information 1500 that may be stored,either together as a record, or in association with a video identifier,once a video content owner/creator enters necessary information via afront end method such as that 1400 described with respect to FIG. 14.The set of information 1500 may include a field 1510 for storing a videoidentifier, a field 1520 for storing an indication of whether or not adsmay be served with the video, a field 1530 for storing information(e.g., absolute or relative times, start and stop times, start times anddurations, etc.) about one or more ad spots, and a field 1540 forstoring meta data 1540. Naturally, less or more information may bestored, and other data structures may be used.

Using the method 1400 of FIG. 14, each whole video may have the optionto have ads inserted into it at various breakpoints defined by the partythat uploaded the content (e.g., the content owner). The content ownercan opt-in to show ads at the time of file upload and also enable themat a later time from the content owner front end interface. In at leastsome embodiments consistent with the present invention, the contentowner can disable ads for the piece of content.

Referring back to both block 1450 of FIG. 14 and field 1540 of FIG. 15,in at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thecontent owner may be asked to provide some or all of the followingpieces of information for the content that they uploaded: title;description; transcript; Tribune Metadata (if applicable); andrecommended viewing demographic. If the content owner is also servingthe video (e.g., a television broadcaster), they may provide additionalinformation such as, for example, one or more of broadcast locationscovered, time of day, day of week, time of year, audience informationsuch as demographics, etc.

Referring back to FIG. 1420, in at least some embodiments consistentwith the present invention, videos uploaded may be checked forcompliance with Terms of Service (e.g., no pornography, no alcohol,etc.).

FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1600 for providing avideo advertiser front end in a manner consistent with the presentinvention. A creative to be used as a video ad is identified by theadvertiser. (Block 1610) The identified video is then transferred (e.g.,uploaded) from the advertiser's machine (e.g., personal computer) to thevideo ad server. (Block 1620) Service constraints and price informationmay be accepted from the advertiser. (Block 1630) If necessary, thevideo ad is converted to an appropriate format for the video ad server.(Block 1640) Finally, the video ad file is stored in association with adinformation (e.g., serving constraints and price information) (Block1650) before the method 1600 is left (Node 1660).

Referring back to block 1630 of FIG. 16, the serving constraints may beone or more of: keywords (to match the metadata of a given videodocument); Website-targeting from the advertiser to place an ad (andcharge advertisers on a cost per impression basis); geolocationtargeting (e.g., country, region, city, zip code); demographics;vertical categories, etc.

Referring back to block 1640, video ads in one format (e.g., MPEG) maybe converted to another format (e.g., Flash). For example, GeneralMotors (GM) may want to upload new ads for their new line of Pontiaccars, and have them displayed in both (1) a video stream next to NASCARclips on the Web and (2) Websites which post reviews of their new lineof cars. GM may upload an MPEG version of a video ad and the advertisingnetwork may automatically convert the MPEG video to a Flash video. TheMPEG version of the video ad may then be inserted into those videostreams across the Web that fit GM's Website targeting and keyword matchfor video. In addition, the Flash video ads may be used in similarcontext for Web pages with non-video stream content (e.g., static webpages). In at least some embodiments consistent with the presentinvention, the video ads may undergo one or more of audio-volumenormalization, automatic speech recognition, transcoding, thumbnailgeneration, approval review, addition to index, etc.

Techniques such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/112,732 (referred to as “the '732 patent” and incorporated herein, inits entirety, by reference), filed on Apr. 22, 2005, titled “SUGGESTINGTARGETING INFORMATION FOR ADS, SUCH AS WEBSITES AND/OR CATEGORIES OFWEBSITES FOR EXAMPLE”, and listing Sumit AGARWAL, Brian AXE, DavidGEHRKING, Ching LAW, Andrew MAXWELL, Gokul RAJARAM, and Leora WISEMAN asinventors may be used to suggest Websites. In at least some embodimentsconsistent with the present invention, all of the Websites in the toolmust have video content that is compatible with the video ad servingsystem. In at least some embodiments consistent with the presentinvention, the advertiser may choose from a list of Websites which isgenerated after the advertiser has entered keywords, concepts, and/orvertical categories, etc. These keywords will match the metadata for thevideo content. In at least some embodiments consistent with the presentinvention, a message will appear in the advertiser's e-mailbox wheneverthere is a new Website with video content that fits the adgroup.

Referring back to block 1650 and FIG. 7, video ads and video adinformation may be stored in various ways. For example, in at least someembodiments consistent with the present invention, multiple video adfiles may be concatenated together in larger video file server (VFS)“packs”, to help with VFS performance. More specifically, to handle thepotential proliferation of small video files, multiple video files canbe stored in single VFS file called a “bundle” or a “pack”. If an AVIindexer stores individual video files in VFS, it should be provided withthe additional capability of inserting into a VFS bundle, and recordingthe video offsets within the bundle. This may be implemented with acommand-line tool (referred to as “the PackerIndexer”). This tool stuffsmultiple video ad files into a VFS pack, and also enters the fileserving information into an index. This may be done by (i) copying thefile into the pack, (ii) noting the file offsets within the pack, (iii)updating the index with the serving information. The index key may be(content-id, format) where “format” is derived from looking at the videofile (e.g., AVI-320). The index may contain the VFS bundle filename. Thechunk offsets may represent the absolute seek position into the pack. Inat least one embodiment consistent with the present invention, a set ofM packs may be maintained. In such an embodiment, the pack name may bedetermined by hashing the video content-id modulo M.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention,video ads may be stored in the same data structures or data bases asother types of ads (e.g., text-only ads). In such embodiments, columnsthat enumerate the creative formats (text, image, video, Flash video,etc.) may include values corresponding to video creative formats.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thetime duration of the ad may be considered during an arbitration. A field(video_duration_ms) may be used to permit the call for video ads tolimit the time duration of the video ads returned. The arbitration mayoptimize (e.g., maximize) a value (e.g., expected revenue per ad spot orper video document ad spots) given an ad spot duration constraint (andperhaps other constraints).

Once video documents are available to be served, and advertisers haveentered video ads, the environment 1300 of FIG. 13 may serve video adswith video documents. FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method1700 for serving video ads with (e.g., hosted) video content in a mannerconsistent with the present invention. The acts of FIG. 17 are describedin association with the messaging diagram of FIG. 18. A request for avideo document is transmitted from a client device to a document serverto a document server. (Block 1710 and message 1850) In response, thevideo document server serves a video document which includes one or moread spots to the requesting client device. (Block 1720 and message 1860)The video document is loaded onto the client device. (Block 1730) Codeinserted into the video document is executed by the client device (e.g.,a browser or video player) to generate an ad request. (Block 1740) Thead request may include one or more of (i) a video document identifier,(ii) meta-data about the video document, (iii) location informationabout the client device (e.g., an Internet protocol address, a languageselection), (iv) user information, (v) a number of ads needed, (vi) whenthe ads are needed, (vii) a duration of ads needed, (viii) video ownerblocking information, (ix) a video owner identifier, (x) informationthat may be used to lookup any of the foregoing, etc. The ad request istransmitted to the video ad server. (Block 1750 and message 1870) Thevideo ad server determines a set of one or more relevant ads for therequest. (Block 1760) The video ad server may then transmit thedetermined set of ads to the client device for rendering. (Block 1770and message 1880) Impressions and/or user-ad actions (e.g., selections,conversions, etc.) may be tracked. (Block 1780)

Referring back to block 1760, relevant ads may be determined bycomparing the video document metadata (e.g., title, description,transcript, tribune metadata, demographic data about the video,time/date information, audience location information, audiencedemographic information, etc.) to serving constraints and/or relevanceinformation (e.g., terms, concepts, clusters, vertical categories, etc.)associated with the various ads. If there are too many relevant ads forthe number of ad spots, the ads may be scored (e.g., as a function ofprice, relevance, and/or performance, etc.) to determine a final set ofads to be served with the video document. Recall that some or all of themetadata is provided to the video ad server during the playback of thevideo document so that the ad server can determine relevant ads. Thismay be done by annotating (either in-line, an XML feed, or some otherdata interchange mechanism) a Web page on which the video document islinked.

Still referring to block 1760, in at least some embodiments consistentwith the present invention, once the ad is in the system, it will beserved similarly to the way content ads are served as described in the'900 application. However, the client for the ad is expected to beeither a Flash client, or a video-on-demand server at a cable headend.The client may pass a video content identifier which may be used tolookup information about the video content. Alternatively, or inaddition, the client may pass information about the video content. Forexample, to allow for the case where there is no content identifieravailable to the client (e.g., in the case of syndication) contentand/or other document information (e.g., a transcript of the video,embedded structured data such as title, description, genre, etc.) may bepassed to the video ad sever instead. In either case, the informationabout the video content may be used to target the video ads.

Still referring to block 1760, in at least some embodiments consistentwith the present invention, uploaded video ads may be ignored (or deemedineligible to participate in an arbitration, or be served) until theyare transcoded and/or approved.

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary video player Web page 1900 which may beused in embodiments consistent with the present invention. The page mayinclude a video content portion 1910 with video player controls (e.g.,play, pause, skip, change volume, change screen size, etc.) 1920. Thepage 1900 may include a title line 1950, related information (e.g.,length, time of upload or file creation, URL link) 1960, various frames1970 extracted from the video stream, and descriptive text 1980. A videosearch box 1930 and search button 1940 are also shown. In at least someembodiments consistent with the present invention, video ads may beplayed in the same portion 1910 as the video content. Alternatively, orin addition, (e.g., video) ads can be shown in separate portions. If theads are audio or video ads, they may play automatically before, during,or after the video content is played, or may be provided with its ownplayer and played only upon user selection. Naturally, other ways ofpresenting ads and video ads with video content are possible.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thead serving and selection logic may occur in ActionScript embedded in FLVfiles that are served up from the video server. For example, the servermay embed (i) information in the FLV that dictates where the ads shouldbe inserted, and (ii) the video content-id. In such embodiments, the FLVmay also include ActionScript code to interpret this information, byfetching the ad URLs and then playing the ad videos using a separatecall to the video server for the actual ad file.

In an alternative embodiment consistent with the present invention, thevideo server may embed ads directly in the video stream. However, insuch an embodiment, the server may need to perform on-the-fly frame ratematching (matching ads to the frame rates of uploaded videos.) This mayalso complicate (or even prevent) showing different ads each time thepiece of content is played (e.g., if the user downloads the content totheir local hard drive). In this scenario, the server may providemetadata to the individual ads that will be played and when to theplayer. In this way, the player can treat the video when ads are playingdifferently, and be able to re-run ad arbitrations when the video isplayed multiple times.

Recall that ads can be targeted to specific Websites. If there is asite-targeting match between an ad and a piece of video content, thenthat ad may be inserted into the video stream at predetermined points(e.g., beginning, middle, end—Recall 1530 of FIG. 15.) within the videodocument.

Recall from block 1780 that user-ad actions may be tracked. In at leastsome embodiments consistent with the present invention, a video player(e.g., a Macromedia Flash player) may be provisioned so that the userhas the option to skip an individual ad. If the ad has not been skippedwithin a negotiable time period (e.g., five seconds) from its beginning,then the impression for the ad may be considered to be a validimpression. Otherwise, the impression maybe considered invalid orassumed not to have occurred. In at least some embodiments consistentwith the present invention, the video player may be provisioned suchthat the user can pause an ad. This user-ad action may be tracked.Finally, in at least some embodiments consistent with the presentinvention, the video player may be provisioned such that the user can goback to a previous ad. This user-ad action may be tracked. In at leastsome embodiments consistent with the present invention, where the userreverts to a previous ad, only the first impression is counted.

In some embodiments consistent with the present invention, a video adwill play by default. In such embodiments, a video player might or mightnot include a user control to mute and/or stop the ad. In otherembodiments consistent with the present invention, a video ad will notplay by default, but rather, will only play if the end user enters aplay command. In such embodiments, a thumbnail and/or text associatedwith the ad may be provided, or only a portion of the video ad may beplayed without an end user entering a play command.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, theadvertiser may be provided with a reporting interface. Reports availableto the advertiser may include the number of impressions served, numberof selections, number of conversions, etc. and/or any other trackedinformation.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, theentity serving the video ads may charge advertisers on the basis of oneor more of: (i) impressions; (ii) selections (e.g., if the user clickson an element within the video while it is playing); (iii) conversions;(iv) a periodic subscription, etc. Impressions may be counted as thevideo ads are served. Alternatively, a player on the client device maybe used to track impressions. For example, an API may be provided fromthe client (or player) back to the ad serving system, since only theplayer can determine whether the ad has been played for certain. Thusthe advertiser can be charged based on “effective” impressions where thevideo player has determined that the end user has viewed an ad (andperhaps declined an opportunity to skip it). The advertiser can also becharged as a function (e.g., a linear function, a polynomial function,or an exponential function) of how much of a video ad was played.

The environment 1300 of FIG. 13 assumes that video information 1315stored on a video server 1310 was entered by video content owners via avideo publisher front end 1320. However, embodiments consistent with thepresent invention may be used to serve (e.g., video) ads with othersources of video content. Examples of other sources of video contentinclude larger partners of the video ad serving system (who are assumedto have a certain degree of technical sophistication), and smallerpartners of the video ad serving system (who are assumed to be lesssophisticated). Exemplary front end user interfaces for each aredescribed below. In either case, the partner may earn a revenue share ofproceeds generated from playing video ads.

Larger Partner Site Front End

For partners that host video on their own Website, the video ad servingsystem may require that such partners (i) abide by various terms of use,and (ii) include either an in-line annotation for each piece of videocontent for which they wish to use an ads-for-video (AFV) or an XML feedthat can be scanned by the ad serving system and that contains someinformation from the following metadata (title, description, transcript,Tribune Metadata, demographic data about the video, etc.). As alreadydescribed above, the metadata may be used to (i) retrieve appropriatevideo ad(s) from the video ad server and (H) insert the video ad(s) intothe video feed on the partner Website.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thepartner may be provided with a competitive filter, and/or a contextualfilter. In at least some embodiments consistent with the presentinvention, the partner may be provided with the option to run defaultads in the event that there are no appropriate video ads (e.g., adsdeemed relevant to the video document on the basis of their servingconstraints).

Smaller Partner Site Front End

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention,partners who are not hosting video on their own Website, but instead usea third party video server (e.g., a video server affiliated with, orcontrolled by, the video ad serving system), can show streaming video ontheir own Website within an iFrame. Rather than resorting to the inlineannotation on the Web page, relevant ads may be determined using themetadata associated with the hosted video document and/or relevancyinformation (e.g., Metadata, terms, concepts, clusters, verticalcategories, etc.) of the Web page content. In at least some embodimentsconsistent with the present invention, all video creatives uploaded tothe third party video server may be checked for compliance with terms ofservice (i.e., no pornography, no alcohol, etc.).

As was the case with the larger partner Website front end, in at leastsome embodiments consistent with the present invention, the partner maybe provided with a competitive filter, and/or a contextual filter. In atleast some embodiments consistent with the present invention, thepartner may be provided with the option to run default ads in the eventthat there are no appropriate video ads (e.g., ads deemed relevant tothe video document on the basis of their serving constraints).

Delivery of Flash Video Ads for a Text Document (e.g., a WebpageIncluding Text)

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, acontent owner of a text document (e.g., a publisher of a Web pageincluding text) may opt into having targeted video advertisements to beplayed on their document. For example, document information of thedocument (e.g., Metadata concepts, clusters, terms, keywords, verticalcategories, etc.) may be used to target one or more Flash video ads tobe shown in a designated area of the document.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention,flash video ads may be matched to the content of the document (e.g., Webpage or Website) and the flash video, along with its player, will beshown in a designated area or areas of the document. In at least someembodiments consistent with the present invention, the Flash video adplayer may have one or more of the following pieces of functionality:play button; a pause button; a seek bar which allows the user tonavigate within the flash video ad; volume control; and an overlaybutton on which a user can click to be taken to more information aboutthe product or service. In at least some embodiments consistent with thepresent invention, the flash video ad player may play additional adinformation, such as text information provided by the advertiser and/orextracted from the ad landing page for example.

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention, anend user will have to select (e.g., click on) the play button for theflash video ad to begin playing. A click on the play button may be usedas evidence of an impression (for purposes of reporting, performancetracking, and/or billing). A click on the more information button or onthe flash video itself may be used as evidence of a selection (e.g., aclick-through) (for purposes of reporting, performance tracking, and/orbilling).

In at least some embodiments consistent with the present invention,initial and/or final thumbnail images (e.g., specified by the advertiserand/or automatically extracted from the video ad) may be associated withthe flash video ad. Such thumbnail images can be displayed when thevideo is not being played (e.g., before a play, or after the whole adhas played).

§4.5 CONCLUSIONS

As can be appreciated from the foregoing, embodiments consistent withthe present invention can be used to deliver relevant advertisements forvideo media such as, for example, television, video-voicemail, Webcast,podcast, online voice video-chatting, video-phone conversations, etc.Embodiments consistent with the present invention support arbitrationsallowing more advertisers to compete for ad spots on video documents.This increased competition should increase advertising revenues forvideo document publishers.

1-41. (canceled)
 42. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, at a computer system including at least one computer on anetwork, a video document, the video document including video content tobe provided for presentation; determining, by the computer system, fromthe video content, one or more third-party content slot locations atwhich to insert third-party content slots, the third-party content slotsconfigured to receive third-party content items for presentation, thethird-party content slot locations having a start time that correspondsto a time of the video document at which to insert the third-partycontent slot; inserting the third-party content slots at the determinedthird-party content slot locations of the video document, thethird-party content slots configured to receive third-party contentitems; receiving, at the computer system, a request to provide the videodocument for presentation; delivering, by the computer system, the videodocument for presentation; identifying, by the computer system, aparticular third-party content slot inserted in the video document;accepting, by the computer system, offers, specific to the particularthird-party content slot, to have third-party content items served inthe particular third-party content slot; arbitrating, by the computersystem, among competing third-party content items, using at least theoffers, to determine at least one third-party content item to be servedin the particular third-party content slot; selecting, by the computersystem, the determined at least one third-party content item to serve inthe particular third-party content slot; receiving, by the computersystem, a request for a third-party content item to be inserted in theparticular third-party content slot; and providing, by the computersystem, the determined third-party content item for presentation at atime of the video document at which the particular third-party contentslot is inserted.
 43. The computer-implemented method of claim 42,further comprising: analyzing content of the video document to determinerelevancy information of the video document; and wherein identifying oneor more third-party content items for insertion into the particularthird-party content slot based on the relevancy information of the videodocument.
 44. The computer-implemented method of claim 43, whereinanalyzing content of the video document to determine relevancyinformation of the video document includes analyzing content of thevideo document after the video document is delivered for presentationand while the video document is being presented.
 45. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 42 wherein determining one or morethird-party content slot locations in which to insert third-partycontent slots includes: dividing the video document into a plurality ofsegments; identifying relevancy information of each of the plurality ofsegments; identifying relevancy information of the video document; andapplying, for a third-party content slot inserted between temporallyadjacent segments, weights to the relevancy information of thetemporally adjacent segments and the relevancy information of the videodocument, the temporally adjacent segments weights having a largerweight than remaining segments of the plurality of segments; andselecting a third-party content item for insertion into a particularthird-party content slot based on the applied weights of the relevancyinformation of the temporally adjacent segments and the relevancyinformation of the video document.
 46. The computer-implemented methodof claim 42, wherein selecting the determined at least one third-partycontent item to serve in the particular third-party content slotincludes selecting a third-party content item that placed the highestoffer in an auction for the third-party content slot.
 47. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 42, further comprising: receivingthird-party content revenue responsive to providing a third-partycontent item for display in the particular third-party content slot; andsharing, by the computer system, the third-party content revenue with avideo publisher that publishes the video document.
 48. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 42 wherein determining one or morethird-party content slot locations at which to insert third-partycontent slots includes analyzing content associated with the videodocument and identifying suitable third-party content item locationsbased on the analyzed content.
 49. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 42 wherein determining one or more third-party content slotlocations at which to insert third-party content slots includesdetermining a cumulative length of all third-party content slots to beinserted in the video content based on a length of the video contentincluded in the video document such that a ratio of the length of thevideo content to the cumulative length of all third-party content slotsdoes not fall below a threshold.
 50. A system comprising: at least oneprocessor; and at least one storage device storing processor-executableinstructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, causesthe processor to: receive a video document, the video document includingvideo content to be provided for presentation; determine from the videocontent, one or more third-party content slot locations at which toinsert third-party content slots, the third-party content slotsconfigured to receive third-party content items for presentation, thethird-party content slot locations having a start time that correspondsto a time of the video document at which to insert the third-partycontent slot; insert the third-party content slots at the determinedthird-party content slot locations of the video document, thethird-party content slots configured to receive third-party contentitems; receive a request to provide the video document for presentation;deliver the video document for presentation; identify a particularthird-party content slot inserted in the video document; accept offers,specific to the particular third-party content slot, to have third-partycontent items served in the particular third-party content slot;arbitrate, among competing third-party content items, using at least theoffers, to determine at least one third-party content item to be servedin the particular third-party content slot; select the determined atleast one third-party content item to serve in the particularthird-party content slot; receive a request for a third-party contentitem to be inserted in the particular third-party content slot; andprovide the determined third-party content item for presentation at atime of the video document at which the particular third-party contentslot is inserted.
 51. The system of claim 50, further comprising:analyzing content of the video document to determine relevancyinformation of the video document; and wherein identifying one or morethird-party content items for insertion into the particular third-partycontent slot based on the relevancy information of the video document.52. The system of claim 51, wherein analyzing content of the videodocument to determine relevancy information of the video documentincludes analyzing content of the video document after the videodocument is delivered for presentation and while the video document isbeing presented.
 53. The system of claim 50, wherein determining one ormore third-party content slot locations in which to insert third-partycontent slots includes: dividing the video document into a plurality ofsegments; identifying relevancy information of each of the plurality ofsegments; identifying relevancy information of the video document; andapplying, for a third-party content slot inserted between temporallyadjacent segments, weights to the relevancy information of thetemporally adjacent segments and the relevancy information of the videodocument, the temporally adjacent segments weights having a largerweight than remaining segments of the plurality of segments; andselecting a third-party content item for insertion into a particularthird-party content slot based on the applied weights of the relevancyinformation of the temporally adjacent segments and the relevancyinformation of the video document.
 54. The system of claim 50, whereinselecting the determined at least one third-party content item to servein the particular third-party content slot includes selecting athird-party content item that placed the highest offer in an auction forthe third-party content slot.
 55. The system of claim 50, furthercomprising: receiving third-party content revenue responsive toproviding a third-party content item for display in the particularthird-party content slot; and sharing, by the computer system, thethird-party content revenue with a video publisher that publishes thevideo document.
 56. The system of claim 50, wherein determining one ormore third-party content slot locations at which to insert third-partycontent slots includes analyzing content associated with the videodocument and identifying suitable third-party content item locationsbased on the analyzed content.
 57. The system of claim 50, whereindetermining one or more third-party content slot locations at which toinsert third-party content slots includes determining a cumulativelength of all third-party content slots to be inserted in the videocontent based on a length of the video content included in the videodocument such that a ratio of the length of the video content to thecumulative length of all third-party content slots does not fall below athreshold.
 58. A computer-implemented method, comprising: receiving, ata computer system including at least one computer on a network, athird-party content item, the third-party content item including videocontent; identifying, from a video database, a plurality of videodocuments determined to be relevant to the video content of thethird-party content item; providing, to a third-party content providerassociated with the received third-party content item, the identifiedvideo documents; receiving, from the third-party content provider, afirst bid to display the third-party content item in a specificthird-party content slot of a first video document of the identifiedvideo documents; receiving, from the third-party content provider, asecond bid to display the third-party content item in a specificthird-party content slot of a second video document of the identifiedvideo documents; selecting, based on the first bid and the second bid,the third-party content item to insert in the specific third-partycontent slot of the first video document of the identified videodocument; and inserting the third-party content item in the specificthird-party content slot of the first video document for presentation.59. The computer-implemented method of claim 58, further comprising:determining a relevancy scores of the plurality of video documentsrelative to the video content of the third-party content item; andarranging the video documents according to the determined relevancyscore.
 60. The computer-implemented method of claim 58, whereininserting the third-party content item in the specific third-partycontent slot of the first video document for presentation includesinserting the third-party content item in the specific third-partycontent slot of the first video document after the first video documentis initiated an act of presentation.
 61. The computer-implemented methodof claim 58, further comprising determining from video content of thefirst video document, one or more third-party content slot locations atwhich to insert third-party content slots, the third-party content slotsconfigured to receive third-party content items for presentation, thethird-party content slot locations having a start time that correspondsto a time of the video document at which to insert the third-partycontent slot.